Blockbuster goes Blu-ray, HD DVD=beta?,

Walmart and Sams are with HD-DVD,

My local Sam's Club carries both the Toshiba HD-D2 HD DVD player and the entry-level Sony Blu-ray. They also carry movie titles in both formats.

The battle lines are drawn. Hollywood bug studios team up with Sony, "the "Corporate" bad guys, and arm themselves with Ratatouille, POTC3 and Blade Runner Xmas Blu-ray releases. Meanwhile Jason Bourne with Sam and Walmart must find a way to fight back with their "Bourne Ultimatum" which also releases at Xmas.

It will be interesting to see if Bourne can find a way to win the format battle, against all odds!

I taught Toshiba people in an executive program about a month ago. They worried about HD DVD losing grounds to Blu-ray. I live in Asia and increase in sales of high resolution formats has been even slower than that of US market.

The real battle ground is in the US and what is happening in Asia and Europe won't decide the eventual winner.

Although I think HD DVD is better executed technology at the moment (by small margin), my prediction is that Blu-ray will eventually win the battle.

The prediction is based on the fact that major electronics companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and Pioneer are backing Blu-ray. This gives huge advantage in displays at electronics stores such as Best Buy. Also, Blu-ray has more exclusive titles than HD DVD.

HD DVD's advantage is low production cost of hardware and software. This advantage is reflected in low cost of HD DVD players. If Blu-ray camp reduces the cost of Blu-ray players in line with HD DVD players, this advantage will go away. I am a little surprised that Sony and other companies have not done this so far.

I admit to being startled that Hitachi is launching the first two Blu-ray camcorders this fall. I remember when Sony was the king of the camcorder, and I'm surprised that they weren't first to market with a Blu-ray Handycam.

08-08-07: Leedistad
I admit to being startled that Hitachi is launching the first two Blu-ray camcorders this fall. I remember when Sony was the king of the camcorder, and I'm surprised that they weren't first to market with a Blu-ray Handycam.

Maybe, with the crash'n'burn of Beta in the marketplace, Sony finally realized that they'll do better in the long run if they're less greedy with the hardware technology and license it to multiple vendors to establish Blu-ray as the de facto standard. Whereas Sony didn't license Beta to anyone until it was too late, Blu-ray machines are made by Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Hitachi, Panasonic, LG, Sharp, Lite-On, and Mitsubishi.

To my knowledge, Toshiba's the only one making home theater standalone HD DVD players, though there are different vendors for HD DVD drives for computers and X-boxes, and I suppose you could give a half-manufacturing credit to LG as well.

Sony finally realizes that they want as many Blu-ray machines out there as possible, regardless of manufacture, because they hold the rights to a huge market share of the software--everything from Sony Pictures, Columbia (and Tri-Star), most of MGM, and a lot of United Artists.